PIRANHA DD
US, 2013, 80 minutes, Colour.
Danielle Panabaker, Matt Bush, David Koechner, Christopher Lloyd, Ving Rhames, Clu Gulager.
Directed by John Gulager.
Piranha DD is the fourth of the Piranha films. Begun in the late 1970s with Piranha, directed by Joe Dante, there was a 1980s follow-up directed by James Cameron. In 2010, there was a 3D version which was much more exploitative than the first two films, capitalising on the basic plot of Jaws, a resort which was menaced by monstrous sea creatures. This new film follows suit but is a very cut-rate affair, making a link with its predecessor, indicating that the Piranhas were still deadly (Gary Busey and Clu Gulager not surviving the opening credits).
David Koechner, who is featured in many comedies, is the go-getting proprietor of a new theme park with several swimming pools, ranging from children to adult pools with nude bathing. The day before the opening, his stepdaughter who is a marine biologist (Danielle Panabaker), discovers that the piranhas have migrated from the now abandoned lake Victoria to the new area in Arizona. She and her friends visit the scientist who had alerted the world to the previous dangers and the information about their travelling in underground rivers. He is played by Christopher Lloyd, doing his variation on a mad scientist, more pre-occupied with how many hits he is getting on the Internet.
David Hasselhoff has a rather unflattering guest role as himself, invited to the opening and sitting around as a rather self-centred lifeguard. He also has a joke at the end of the film when he advertises his new series, The Fish Fighter. Ving Rhames, whose legs were chewed off in the prequel, appears to little advantage now, overcoming his fears, and having weapons concealed in his substitute metallic legs!
The film will go down on the list of exploitation movies, especially because of nudity, promiscuous and permissive attitudes, with more than a touch of the sleazy.
There is a sex scene which opens as permissive, but turns into a bizarre episode with a piranha getting into the girl’s vagina and clinging on to the man’s penis during intercourse with his having to slice his penis off to get rid of the piranha.
The ultimate mayhem is rather low-key in comparison with other films of this kind.
There is a variation on the theme where the nerd in the town is the romantic interest of the heroine. We are led to believe it will be the handsome deputy policeman who was in love with her in the past. However, he is involved in money exchange for allowing the pool to go ahead, proves himself to be a coward, and is ultimately killed with a trident fired into the sky and coming down on him.
There is practically no reason for seeing this film. At least its prequel, filled with reputable actors, but having the courage of its absurd convictions, served for providing a night of mirth and mockery watching it on DVD. No such luck with this one.
